Identity Theft Threatens Economic Growth and National Security

An inordinate amount of identity theft is occurring in America, especially in the state of Florida.

Employees are stealing Social Security numbers from healthcare and assisted-living facilities that have large databases due to the large magnitude of Medicare recipients.

Moreover, public law requires the release of Social Security numbers assigned to the deceased, a highly imprudent methodology. In fact, genealogy websites freely publish this data, which have become a treasure trove for those involved with identity theft.

False tax returns have been filed on behalf of unsuspecting individuals. As a result, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued erroneous tax refunds totaling tens of billions of dollars.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) should not be required to release Social Security numbers to American citizens based on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Moreover, entities involved with handling the deceased should be required to report this death to the IRS and SSA. These entities would include state medical examiners and coroner offices, funeral home establishments, and any witnesses to the death certificate.

Moreover, encryption technology can be applied to all sensitive data regardless of the storage media. Therefore, in addition to online Internet server transactions, third-party encryption could be used with offline databases; biometric images; and physical documents, such as birth certificates and driver identifications.

This methodology would minimize identity theft and the associated fraudulent activities that negatively impact our individual and national security.